Colleen’s Blog

I have been coaching salespeople on negotiation strategies for over 20 years. And I’ve found sellers consistently make one mistake: they jump too quickly to lower their price even if they're getting something in return.

Are you setting your sales managers up to fail? A few years ago, I met an executive running sales teams who had recently been promoted to the role.

My very favorite question in all of selling is simply, "Why?" Why do I like it so much? There are a number of reasons. 

If you travel a lot with work—as I do—it exposes you to a much wider variety of ways that people experience the world around them. But travelling can also make us keen observers of human beings and how they do business with each other.

As we’re rounding out any month, quarter, or year—depending on how your fiscal year is created—I always like salespeople to think about accelerating their sales in the next period. The easiest way to start this process is by looking at your current sales velocity. 

A short time ago in the B2B field, buyers were unaware of who sellers were until we called them.

As we approach the last few weeks of the year, salespeople often find themselves either coasting into the new year because they have accomplished their sales goals, or they find themselves pushing hard because they have struggled to reach their sales targets.

There has been no greater impact on B2B sales in the last decade than the online consumer-buying process.

I recently completed a number of studies regarding sales leaders and their salespeople. And one element that keeps resurfacing is that their salespeople are reporting that they want their leaders to be more solutions-oriented. When I examined this closely to determine what that specifically meant, I discovered salespeople want—during a coaching session or sales meeting—the sales leaders to help them solve their problems.

There's a truth about gatekeepers that you need to be thinking about. Namely, that you create them. You read that right. You're creating your own gatekeepers.